Chrono Ressurrection Forced to Cease & Desist

Kethinov writes "The Chrono Ressurrection Project (previously mentioned on /. here), an attempted 3d remake of the popular 2d game Chrono Trigger, has been shut down by Squenix in the form of a cease and desist letter. Quoth their website, "it is with our deepest regrets in that we have to announce the closure of the Chrono Resurrection project. Square Enix Co., Ltd recently issued a Cease and Desist letter which will mean the project is closed indefinitely." The site retains two trailers and a number of screenshots."

Comments

Why not just change the name, and the characters

[tod_miller]

Remove all trademarks, and you are golden. Perhaps do a rockstar, and rename all the car names in a quirky way.

The screenshots look awesome, keep the engine and just remove trademarks.

beautiful screenshot

Good luck to 'em

That was predictable.

[Dark Lord Seth]

Constantly rehashing Squaresoft titles into new titles with only minor and insignificant changes is the only way Square-Enix makes games nowadays.

Can't have your biggest fans steal your business model, hmm?

Really, is anyone surprised by this?

[Canthros]

Disclaimer: IANAL, but...

Look, Square is required to defend, vigorously, its trademarks and copyrights. If they don't, they lose them, and that could cut into their profits significantly. Furthermore, this crosses way beyond any legitimate extrapolation of fair use. Just as translating a book into another language or re-scoring a song for another set of instruments requires the permission of the original copyright-holder, re-implementing a game down to the plot, character designs, and underlying system of mechanics is stepping past the boundaries of fair use. There is no way they could legally have distributed or published this project with Squeenix's permission.

It looks like the folks involved have talent and skill, maybe they should be working on making their own game, instead of copying somebody else's? They'd have to start from scratch in many areas, but the screenshots certainly look like they have a suitable graphics engine, and seems like a demonstration of general know-how in the area. Why shouldn't they leverage what they've learned to create a new, different game which isn't someone else's idea warmed over and regurgitated?

Re:Why not just change the name, and the character

[bear pimp]

OR: come up with your own story and characters, THEN you are truly golden.

So much effort went into this, but why didn't he just come up with his own ideas instead of ripping off other people's? He would not have problems if he had his own story, characters and world and only used Chrono Trigger as the inspiration for the gameplay mechanic. Then we would have even more respect for what he was trying to achieve.

Re:Why not just change the name, and the character

[88NoSoup4U88]

Mwoah ; i don't agree on those points ;

This was a Fan project ; they loved the game, think it would even rock more in 3D : And went along and (almost) did it.

Maybe this project has shown them that they -do- have the capabilities to create alot of assets, and they might want to go on ; in the direction you say.

Respect, on my side, is not lost ; Just because they used a world/story/game , and ported it to their vision :
In that mindset ; -every- sequel of -every- game, would not get as much respect as the 'first' ; and that is not the case (taking Super Mario Bros. as an example)